7 Strategies to Create an Interactive Classroom

How do you differentiate
for your English Language Learners? Read on to learn 7 Strategies
that will encourage even your more reluctant English Language Learners to
participate!

There are many ways to
include active interaction within your classrooms. Not only does this help your ELL students, it
provides opportunities for all of your learners to explore oral language. The Common Core Standards for Speaking and
Listening ask for students at multiple grade levels to be able to express their
thoughts and ideas. Students must be
able to explain and defend their own learning.
When you provide an opportunity for your students to interact with one
another in collaborative settings, everyone wins!

So, what is
“Interaction” anyway?

It
is simply the opportunity that you give your students to interact in social and
academic situations. Learning is more effective when students have an
opportunity to discuss ideas and information.
Most people learn best by
doing. Even more learn best when
teaching others. Interaction is essentially
“teaching” others your thoughts and ideas about a given topic. When students defend their thinking, they teach
others about their thinking. Therefore
they internalize the concepts at a deeper level. There are many ways that you can
encourage interaction among your students.
When you do, it encourages even your more reluctant English Language
Learners to participate and it also creates a positive classroom environment. Interaction
stages include Teacher-Student Interaction, Paired Interaction and Group
Interaction. All three levels of
interaction are beneficial and are easy to implement in your classroom.

Try
these 7 Simple Strategies to Create an Interactive and Active Classroom

1.
Set up a classroom that is conducive to interaction. Do you have your classroom set up in
cooperative groups? And when I mean
cooperative groups, is it truly cooperative and not simply seats pushed together
to form a group? Cooperative grouping encourages
discussion and interaction. When asking
questions and presenting material, give your students the opportunity to
“think, pair and share”.

2. Allow your students to use hand signals to
indicate their level of understanding.
Check for understanding by allowing students to give a thumbs up or a
thumbs down. This non-verbal way of communication encourages reluctant ELL (or
any student) to speak up. I always told
my class to hold their signals close to their hearts. This was our private way of “talking”. Another variation is to use red and green
cards on the corner of desks.

3. Move more!
Use hand and body gestures to enhance speech. Teach your students different hand gestures
for certain phrases that are used often in the classroom. Hand gestures enhance speech by providing a
visual connection to the vocabulary or content material. Use music with hand gestures for even more
language support.

4. Increase engagement by using a simple “Find
Your Match” interactive game. When
reviewing vocabulary, pass out cards using terms, definitions, and pictures and
ask students to “find his/her match”.
Strategically pass out the cards by your students’ comfort/ability. Non-English Speakers can join in this
activity easily when you provide them with visual card.

5.
Monitor group work activities by having students share responsibilities on the
assignment. In groups of four, students
read an article and answer questions related to that text. However, they complete the work on each
other’s paper. Starting with their own
paper, students answer question number one.
Then they pass their paper to the right, and begin working on the next
question on the paper passed to them.
Students pass the papers until all questions are answered and the
article is returned to the original owner.
Once completed, give the groups an opportunity to discuss and defend
their answers. This discussion time
provides the oral language support that is essential for ELL students.

6.
Utilize Reader’s Theater to improve fluency and comprehension. Group high and low proficiency level students
together so that students needing oral fluency modeling have the support they
need. Allow students opportunities to
rehearse, read and perform in class.

7. When reviewing a topic, use Circle Chat. Number students off by 2. The number 1 students form a circle facing
out. The number 2 students encircle this
center group facing in. This way, you
have two groups of students in a circle facing each other. Give the students questions to discuss. Partners have the opportunity to discuss the
answers to the questions. Then, the
outer circle rotates one person to the right and the questions continue.

Classroom
Interaction is essential for English Language Learners, but it is also a tool
that will benefit the oral language and development of all students. Can you see yourself
implementing any of the strategies?

4 comments

I love, love, love this list of activities! I am in complete agreement...these strategies are so beneficial to all learners in our classrooms! I see some new things I need to try with my newcomers (and mainstream students!). Thanks for sharing this, Elizabeth!

Welcome to Teaching Diversified! I am so happy you're here. After 20 years in elementary classrooms, I decided to venture out of the classroom into the world of ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages). I now spend my time learning about meeting the needs of these (and other) diverse learners. I absolutely love what I do and consider myself a lifelong learner.